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ments the effect of the blasting.

ilmreo STATES;

. ATENT QrFr HERMANN soHonEwEe, or ,DUDWEILER, NEAR sAARBaucxEn, PRussiA,

GERMANY.

exetos EVE.

SPECIPQECATION .forming part of Letters iPatent No. 3'71,376, dated October 11,1887. Application tiled June 6, 158i. Serial No. 240,485. (No specimens.

rials, of which the following is a specification.

The ob ect of the improvements described.

hereinafter is to smother. the ignition-flames of explosives when discharged and to render them harmless. When explosives are used in coal-mines for blasting purposes, their ignition-fiames have often proved the cause of gisastrous explosions of black-damp or coalust.

These improvements consist in adding oxalic acid or one of the oxalates to the usual explosive substances. The efl'ect produced by this addition of oxalic acid or of an oxalate to the well known explosives is of a two; fold nature: First of all, the ignition-flames are smothered when the explosion takes place, and, secondly, the compound acquires greater explosive power by this addition, for the oxalic acid or the oxalate is decomposed when explosion takes place and greatly aug- In addition to this, the oxalic acid or the oxalate preserves the actual explosive substances from de composition, and consequently makes the explosives much more durable.

The oxalic acid or the oxalate is incorporated with the explosive substances in the following way: Nitrate df ammonia is first dissolvedby putting five per cent. of water to it. Forty per cent, byweight, of oxalic acidor of an oxalate-for instance, oxalateof ammonium-is then added to one hundred per cent., by weight, of the dissolved nitrate of ammonia. When .mixed, the compound is dried at a temperature of 60 to 80 'C'elsius till it losesno longer-in weight. By this means a perfectly=anhydrous compound of an amorphous consistency is obtained. This amorphous compound is then added to the explosive. If; the explosives the ignitionflamesof which have to be smothered by the additionof oxalic acid or of an oxalateconsist in.liquid nitrated carburets of hydrogen, (for instance, ni-tro benzol, nitro toluol, or nitro--naphthaline,) then ten per cent, by

weight, of the amorphous compoundjust described is added to ninety per cent, by weight, of the original explosive. It the'original explosives consist in solid nitrated carburets of hydrogen, or if they be of agelatinous consistency, like the well-known Nobels blast-gelatinc, or if they be the well-known guhr-dynamite, up to twenty per cent. of the amorphous compound described above may be added to eighty-per cent. of the explosives. j I 1 1 For the sake of greater clearness, t'wo compounds which are well adapted for; making pastyand granulated explosives will be now described.

First. Pasty explosives are obtained by mixing eightyper cent. of' nitro-benzol or nitro-toluol with twenty per cent-of dinitrobenzol, dinitro-naphthaline', or'trinitro-naphthaline. Thirty per cent. of nitrated cellulose (gun-cotton or collodion gun-cotton) is dissolved in this mixture, and the result is a gelatinous compound,which is incorporated with twenty per cent. of oxalic acid or of one of the oxalates, or with twenty per cent. of the compound described above.

Second. Granulated explosives are .obtained by mixing eighty per cent. of dinitrobenzol, or dinitro-naphthaline, or trinitronaphthaline with twenty per cent., of nitrobenzol or nitro toluol. In these explosives,

which form an amorphous powder, thirty per cent. of nitrated cellulose (gun-cotton or (30110- dion gun-cottoiQ-is then dissolved by heating the powder up to Celsius. mixture is cooled, an amorphous granulated substance is obtained, with which twenty per cent. of oxalic acid or oxalates, or of the abovedescribed "compound, is mixed.

, All the well-known-oxalates may be used for this purpose.

All these'oxalates may be used in the manner described above. The most important of them are potassichydric oxalate, oxalate-of ammonium, ammonium hydric oxalate, likewise oxalate of potassic ammonium and oxalate of sodic ammonium.

When the Having fully described my invention, what In witness whereof I have hereunto set my I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent hand in presence of two witnesses. of the United States, is

An explosive componnd consisting in ni- HERMANN SOHQNEVVEG' 5 trated carburets of hydrogen and nitrated cel-- Witnesses:

lulose with an oxalate or oxalic acid, for the A. MiiHLNER,

purpose specified. B. ROI. 

